Lewis Hamilton was very encouraged by Mercedes’ performance in the first two practice sessions of the 2020 F1 season.
The W11s headed both 90-minute sessions at the Red Bull Ring, Hamilton leading team mate Valtteri Bottas in each.“The car was feeling good today,” said Hamilton. “It definitely feels like in general compared to last year we have improved the car so that’s a massive positive.”
But despite ending both practice sessions six-tenths of a second quicker than the closest car from a rival team, Hamilton is not taking anything for granted.
“It’s definitely looking good out there but I think you can never take too much from practice,” he said. “The other teams are maybe down on power mode or up on fuel, whatever.
“We’ll take it with a pinch of salt and try and see where we can improve the car tonight and we’ll come back at it tomorrow.”
Team mate Valtteri Bottas said he isn’t fully happy yet with the balance of his W11.
“Overall it does not feel too bad,” he said. “But I think still for me the main thing is getting the balance correct both in high and low speed.
“It feels like some sometimes we get it right in high speed, sometimes we get it right in slow speed corners, but never two on the same lap. So I think just getting everything fine-tuned for that single lap on Saturday will be important.”
The Mercedes’ cars have subsequently been protested by rivals Red Bull over the legality of their Dual Axis Steering systems.
2020 F1 season
- Pictures: Wrecked chassis from Grosjean’s Bahrain fireball crash to go on display
- Bottas vs Rosberg: Hamilton’s Mercedes team mates compared after 78 races each
- F1 revenues fell by $877 million in Covid-struck 2020 season
- Hamilton and Mercedes finally announce new deal for 2021 season
- F1 audience figures “strong” in 2020 despite dip in television viewers
Rockgod (@rockgod)
3rd July 2020, 20:39
I know these are just practice sessions, but comparing today’s Mercedes pace to how they fared in this track last year it doesn’t bode well for rest of the teams, especially Red Bull.
On the flip side, is their engine “too optimized” for this track’s conditions and so will it underperform in other tracks where they dominated before? Only time will tell.
BasCB (@bascb)
3rd July 2020, 21:38
Off course it was not quite as warm as it was last year this weekend @rockgod. So we can still hope they will suffer when temperatures go up? And hope the others find their stride.
It looks like the Red Bull is finicky to keep going straight forward. Or maybe it is just more on edge when parts get slightly damaged over those kerbs?